Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Kitchen Tip from Mom

During my time at home last week, my mom and I reminisced about the years when my sister and I were little kiddos. Mind you, they weren't all blissfully happy.... my mom used to lock herself in the bathroom just to get away from me.

I know... something that cute couldn't possibly have been a handful. Right.

One fond memory I have growing up was playing in the kitchen while my mom cooked. What I didn't realize was this simple trick (which occupied my sister and I for HOURS) actually saved my mom's sanity and helped her to cook meals from scratch even with two hooligans running around.

Today's kitchen tip is brought to you by my mom....

Create a drawer in your kitchen for your children. My girls had their own drawer to play in while I was cooking. I filled the drawer with a large sheet (which I would spread on the floor of my U-shaped kitchen), and a 5 qt. ice cream bucket filled with rice and all sorts of items to fill, pour, mix, measure and stir the rice with.

When it was time for me to be in the kitchen, I'd spread the sheet on the floor and let the girls play with the rice and all the gadgets. When dinner was ready, I had the girls put the items in the drawer, and I would simply pick up the sheet and funnel all the rice back into the bucket. It was a simple and easy clean up and the girls loved it. That drawer was a life saver.

I know this is one mandatory drawer that will exist in my kitchen when little sous-chef's make their way into our life.

7 comments:

Great idea! My mom had a drawer like that. It was actually just her tupperware drawer, but she says I loved to sit there for hours loading and unloading the drawer. Perhaps those many hours helped instill our love for cooking?

What a great idea! Right now my son gets into my pots and pans drawer and also the plastic containers and that works out fine. I'll have to try this out once he's a little older...I'm afraid he'd just eat the rice right now!

When cooking, please make sure to follow kitchen hygiene and safety -- cook meat until internal temperature is at safe levels, always check labels for allergens, and use caution in the kitchen -- I love sharing recipes, but I am not liable for damages done as a result of trying these recipes.